DUCK AND COVER
It looked like the Rangers weren’t going to accept a fourth straight loss.
No matter what was thrown at them, the Rangers never wavered, earning a convincing 5-1 win over the Ducks on Sunday at Madison Square Garden to snap a three-game losing skid.
Outshooting a depleted Ducks team 41-20, the Rangers dictated the pace of play from puck drop. Henrik Lundqvist, who made his first start in over a week, stopped 19 of the 20 shots he faced, and did his part to stop the bleeding.
“I think coming off of last game against Toronto, everybody was determined,” Lundqvist said of the Rangers’ 6-3 loss Friday. “We needed a big performance here from everyone and we needed a win. And knowing what we were facing, a team with a few top guys out, you need to get a good start, get a good first period, where you get the speed going. They’re a pretty heavy team, but when you bring up the speed, I thought we put them in a tough spot and created a lot of chances.”
It was one of the Rangers’ strongest first periods in a while. Filip Chytil netted his first goal since Nov. 29 in Boston roughly seven minutes into the game, taking a pass from Brendan Lemieux on transition and backhanding the puck over backup Ryan Miller’s left shoulder. Just over 1 ½ minutes later, Brett Howden — who was bumped up to the third line in place of an injured Kaapo Kakko — wristed a long rebound into the back of the net for the 2-0 score at 8:45.
Sam Steel got the Ducks on the board at 9:58, but the Rangers tightened things up and dominated possession for almost the rest of the opening period. Chris Kreider then stripped the puck from Josh Manson just outside of the Rangers’ zone and capitalized on the breakaway with a strong move across the crease, backhanding the puck into the open net to give the Rangers a 3-1 lead.
“I just liked the pace of our game,” coach David Quinn said. “I thought, you look at some of our goals tonight, they were all going north. We weren’t slowing down to go eastwest, and I’m not saying you can’t make cross-ice passes in some plays, you have to do that in this day and age. But I think what you have to do, is you have to set a tone that you have to play fast.”
Anaheim came out of the first intermission looking more collected, but back-to-back saves from Lundqvist maintained the Rangers’ two-goal lead and took away some momentum. As the teams grew testy with one another through the second period, combining for seven penalties in the middle frame, Kreider broke through again and tapped home his second of the day off a spot-on pass from Mika Zibanejad in the corner, giving the Rangers a 4-1 lead at 16:09 of the second.
“It’s something we were talking about this week, just driving to the net, trying to get there, trying to get pucks to the net,” Kreider said. “I thought we did a better job of that, but I think we can continue to build on that.”
With the Rangers starting the third on the penalty kill, Zibanejad managed to squeeze the puck past Miller 1:16 into the period for his second point of the day to cap off a statement win in the locker room.
Quinn stressed how important the Rangers’ game is Monday, when they travel to Philadelphia for a division matchup, mentioning how deeper into the season this stretch of games could make or break their playoff chances.
“It’s big, and we can’t hide from how big this game is,” he said.